If you were a little underwhelmed by Lenovo’s last mini-notebook launch (the IdeaPad S10-2 which was a minor update to the original S10), the IdeaPad S12 should take your blues away. While this little puppy is a bit on the large side for a netbook, thanks to its 12 inch display, it has one killer feature: This is the first laptop to ship with an NVIDIA ION option.

Up until now, the only ION-based products that had been announced were nettops, or tiny desktop computers. The Lenovo IdeaPad S12 is the first laptop to use the platform, although I doubt it will be the last. The S12 is also available with the plain old Intel 945GSE chipset with integrated 950 GMA graphics. This model should cost about $50 less and get better battery life.